O nooooo… not again!!! I hear you I hear you! I won’t go through the mountain lion story again. I’ve written enough about it. It’s time to move on. Except for the part that my trailname CATWOMAN results out of it.
I love my trailname. It’s who I am. I couldn’t think of a name suiting me better and it always feels kinda strange to me when someone contacts me and calls me by my other name.
Some of my readers might not be familiar with the trailname tradition so let me explain it a bit. I actually don’t know the official rules… As far as I know there are several “rules” (or whatever you wanna call them), but I guess you can’t call them “official”.
So… There’s a tradition in the hiker scene that a hiker gets a trailname somewhere sometime along the trail. The way I see it that name should result out of a situation on trail (maybe something that happened to you, something funny or stupid you did), out of the way you behave, react, something that defines you. Now some “rules” say you can’t choose your own name and you are not allowed to refuse a name given to you. Some say you gotta stick with that name; once you get it you can’t change it. Some say the opposite… I don’t really care what the rules are here but I do think it’s awesome when a trailname results from a situation/your characteristics on trail, and when you get named by someone else.
Getting a trailname feels a bit like a “welcome to the community”-thing. You now are a real hiker. “From now on thou shall be named xxx and thou shall dwell in the temples of nature!”

So I got my trailname after my night with “my” mountain lion. I was telling my story to some other hikers at Little Yosemite Valley and then Merman, who was listening, said: “Your trailname will be Catwoman!” At that point I didn’t know Merman, but we hiked 2 days together after that and even if I don’t know him very well, I feel like he will always be important to me. He gave me my frikkin trailname!!!
From that moment on people called me Catwoman, mostly shortened to Cat. It’s funny ’cause I first didn’t wanna accept the name. I didn’t wanna be reminded of that night all the time. But Merman said “You’ll turn it into something positive! There’s nothing to discuss. You’re Catwoman!” So Catwoman I became, Catwoman I was, and I probably have been Catwoman way before that time already.

Damn, sometimes I notice I’m a cat myself. I’ve always loved Cats (in fact I love ALL animals) but now I identify myself with them.
Have you ever observed a cat? Have you noticed how they move? Before they go anywhere, they hold still, the slowly look around, smell what is hanging in the air. They check the situation. And then they start moving. Graceful. They are wild souls. Do whatever they want. Are their own master. They decide when and where you’re allowed to touch them. They can jump you in the face at any moment without warning (well mostly there do is a subtle warning but we humans are often not sensitive enough to notice). They like to play. Can be pretty mean, but at the same time need other living souls around, love to cuddle. They frikkin PURRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!!!! They can give you a stare and it feels like they look into the deepest of your soul. Nothing goes unnoticed! They notice every sound, every movement, every energy! Sometimes it feels like they know… EVERYTHING! Hell yeah! Cats!

I guess Merman was right. My trailname turned into something good.

Catwoman. It carries the power of transformation, determination and passion!